Wild Rose Arcana
by wolfmotherx513
Summary: As the world is threatening to be swallowed into a sea of hatred, the power of the wild card must be called upon yet again to save it. But can it be saved when the wild card's wielder and her companions are also at threat of being overtaken by hatred as well?
1. Chapter 1 Welcome, to the Velvet Room

The scene opens up to a first-person point of view, as we looked through the groggy eyes of someone as they slowly wake up and see the ceiling to some room. Getting up the person soon noticed two things.

One, the room was completely blue. Blue carpet, blue walls, and even blue window curtains! The only thing now blue was the red chair that was seated near where they were sitting at, oh by the way she was sitting on a BLUE couch.

The second thing they noticed was the person sitting in the red chair… well, they hoped it was a person. Said person looked at them with big bulging eyes and a huge grin on his face that stretched all the way to his pointed ears that were hidden behind a HUGE nose.

"Welcome~!" the large nose man said in a surprisingly soft voice that didn't fit his scary looks. "To the velvet room!"

The what room? This was confusing our protagonist as they looked around the room again, hopefully, they could figure out what was going on.

"Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world," the man continued, his ghoulish appearance becoming less and less terrifying with every calming world he spoke. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. My name is Igor… I am delighted to make your acquaintance. Now, what is your name, dear guest?"

The person blinks as a voice comes from the person telling Igor their name.

"Ruby Rose?" said Igor as his grin grew bigger. "That is just the name for someone who is a guest of the velvet room, though I do say, it's a fitting name for one such as yourself."

As Igor says this a mirror appears next to him out of thin air. Startling the person it was pointed at. The person whose eyes we've been using to see this strange world now has a face to go along with it.

As the person looked at the large mirror an image stared back, and it was a girl! A fair-skinned, young girl with silver eyes and black neck-length choppy hair that gradated to dark red at the tips. A girl who was dressed in only a simple light blue hospital gown!?

Letting out an "eep!", the young girl wrapped her arms around herself as she looked at the long-nosed man with a pout, which earned her a small chuckle. Soon though a second voice joined in on the laughter as the door to the room opened up and a young man, maybe around 20 walked through.

"Well, things seem to be lively," said the young man as his golden-colored eyes danced with glee. The young man was fair-skinned like Ruby, he also had a choppy hair cut, but while her dark hair was cut short, the young man's silver/white hair was a bit longer and the back of it reached past his neck. He was also dressed up in a male nurse's outfit. That had the letters V.R written in gold on his shoulders. He also had a standard single-head stethoscope hanging off his shoulders.

Walking through the room, the young man went towards an old radio stationed on an old desk and turned it on.

(play Persona 5 OST - Aria Of The Soul)

"Ah, allow me to introduce my associate. This is Henry. Like myself, he is a resident of this place," Igor explained motioning to the man.

Said man gave a small wave towards Ruby as a gentle smile spread across his face.

"Greetings Patient," Henry said in his soft tone voice that set her to ease. "I'm happy to meet one such as yourself, it's rare for Master to bring visitors."

"Patient?" muttered Ruby as she looked at the two with a raised brow.

"Indeed. This place reflects the heart of the guest. It would seem that you have suffered quite a bit, haven't you?" Igor said, his smile never going away.

The young girl looked away, not wanting to look Igor in the eyes.

"Do not feel ashamed. Life is not without hardships, and though yours may be more dramatic than others, you are no less worthy of healing. We are here to facilitate your recovery."

"Yes," Henry said with a smile that was filled with nothing but support and kindness. "The Master shall give you counsel while I provide the proper service to help you on your journey."

"But before that," Igor interrupted as a table appeared in front of him with a deck of cards on top. "Let us see what your future holds."

Confused, Ruby looked towards Henry with a raised brow. The silverish white-haired man let out a small laugh as he gestured back to his master.

"The master is fond of fortune-telling," he said as he soon stepped back to let his master take center stage.

"Indeed. Though the cards are the same, the result is always different. Much like with life." With a wave of his hands, six cards arranged themselves on the table. "The card for your immediate future is…" Igor made a motion as if he was grabbing something and flipping it over. Though his hand was nowhere near the card, the one closest to Ruby obeyed. She flinched as she saw a disturbing image of an imposing tower, split in half by a bolt of lightning as a person fell off of it, the number XVI on the bottom. "The Tower, in the upright position. This card represents sudden, drastic change, the upheaval of things you have been accustomed to, but also of revelations. The card for the future after that is…" Igor repeated the action, revealing the card to the left of the first one. The card revealed was that of a large crescent moon with a face on it, and above it what looked like a lobster, with a river running behind the moon. The number XVIII at the bottom. "The Moon, in the upright position. This card symbolizes illusions, mystery, but also intuition." He turned to face her. "It would seem that soon you will encounter something that will irrevocably change your perceptions of life, uprooting everything you have known. And soon, you will be confronted with a mystery that you must solve soon after. Usually, this would be enough, but as part of your recovery, I would like to try one more card."

He motioned for a card to flip, this one to the right of the first card. Ruby tilted her head for a moment, confused at what she saw, only to realize it was upside down. After tilting her head some more she got a better idea of what she was looking at and flinched. In the center was an intimidating goat skull, surrounded by chains that seemed to form a heart, with a small pentagram above it. At the bottom were two demonic-looking faces looking at each other, one male and one female. The number at the bottom, or top, in this case, was XV. "The Devil, in the reverse position. The Devil represents your darker self, your baser instincts, and addiction. However, with it reversed it can also mean denial of one's desires, restraint, and detachment." He looked back at her. "This represents what you must overcome to achieve your goal. I wonder if you can figure out exactly what that is?"

"Master you are getting ahead of yourself," Henry interrupted. "We need our Patient to figure out her own path."

Igor chuckled. "Forgive me, Hector. It seems I myself have been indulging a bit too much with our new guest. Now, let's move on. This is the card that represents you," Igor said with a snap his fingers. Soon the cards on the table burst into blue flames. Causing Ruby to yell out in fright, but was soon mesmerized by the azure flames as they rose up into the air and shot down into Igor's hands. They soon all took shape into his palm into the shape of a single card. Holding it between his fingers, the balding man smiled as he flipped it to show Ruby. "The Fool."

Ruby blinked confusingly as she stared at the card. Which had the image of a person with a jester hat walk down a long road and with a bag over his shoulder and a small dog chasing after him?

Ruby puffed up her cheeks at what she could see as a joke at her expense.

"Oh, don't be offended, my dear guest. The Fool represents beginnings, both in travels and experience. It is a lack of knowledge, but an openness to the new. But most importantly to you is this," he motioned to the number at the bottom: 0. "Zero is such a curious number, isn't it? It's represents nothing, and yet has infinite possibilities before it."

"It's is quite an honor to have such a card Patient," Henry said with a large amount of respect in his eyes. "You have something great, truly wondrous."

Before Ruby could ask him to explain, Igor coughed gently to get their attention.

"Now, while I enjoy the company, it seems our time is almost to an end," Igor said, and to emphasize his point the sounds of an old bell could be heard from outside. As if. "You will be waking up soon, but don't worry. We will be meeting again VERY soon, my dear guest. Until then, farewell."

With that, Henry walked towards her and gently took her hand as he guided her towards the office door.

"As the master said, we will meet again, and when that happens we will be here to help you," Henry said with a smile as he opened the door. Letting a blinding light filled the room.

Ruby winced as the light enveloped everything. Soon all she could see was nothing but white as a voice called out to her.

"Ruby..."

"Ruby."

"Ruby!"

**-(waking world)-**

"RUBY! Wake UP!" shouted a male voice as said girl jolted awake from the constant shaking she was being put through. Looking around the groggy teen saw that she was on a bus, a school bus to be more precise. Turning towards the person who woke her up she was greeted to a familiar sight.

"Oh… hey, Oscar," Ruby muttered as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes as the now named Oscar let out an annoyed sigh, running his hands through his hair.

Oscar is a boy who was pretty short in stature. His skin is tanned and he has a faint, perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks. His hair is dark brown and his eyes are hazel, the main iris being forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around the pupil. He was also sporting a simple button-up white shirt and a pair of simple jeans and a pair of worn brown boots being the only thing out of place on his little get-up.

"You need to get up, we're about to get to school," Oscar muttered. Almost sounding like he would rather be anywhere but their current destination.

Nodding, the young girl gave herself a small look over to make sure she didn't wrinkle her clothes while sleeping, or worst, drooling all over herself. Letting out a sigh of relief as she saw her outfit wasn't ruined at all. She wore a red t-shirt with a large black rose printed on the front of it, along with a red plaid skirt, and some black thigh high stockings, and a pair of tennis shoes.

Letting out a content sigh the silver-eyed girl gave a smile to the farm boy.

"Thanks for waking me up Oscar," she said. Causing the young boy to let out a small laugh as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Yeah…, well, to be honest, I only did it because someone… 'asked' me too," the smaller teen said with a mutter. But before Ruby could ask what he meant the young man was soon dragged out of his seat and was replaced with a new person who was giving our protagonist an impish grin.

"Neo?" Ruby asked as she looked at her BEST-friend. Said girl whose hair matched her full name Neapolitan. One half (the left) being brown, and the other half (right) being pink and being the dominant color as well. She also had heterochromia, meaning her eyes were two different colors. The right is left, and the right being pink, an unusual color but it seems to fit Neo's whole color scheme. She was also fair skin like Ruby which went well with her choice of clothing.

Unlike the other two Neo always seem to prefer more pricey kinds of clothes, and today was no different from her wearing a pink designer T-Shirt with a cream-colored Tomoe symbol on it (which looked like three commas in a swirl). Over that was a white jean jacket. She was also wearing a pair of tight jeans and a pair of high heel boots. She wore those to make up for the fact she was pretty short for her age, something she doesn't like being pointed out.

And the final piece to round out her outfit was a red scarf around her neck. The only thing that clashed with her outfit but she didn't seem to mind at all.

'Hey, sweety,' Neo signed out with her hand while sporting her grin. Neo was mute so she had to communicate ether with sign language or by writing her words. Though only Ruby and a very few others bothered to learn the first method to talk to her. 'Had me worried there for a bit when I couldn't get you up. So I had to ask little Oscar for help to wake our Sleeping Beauty up.'

"You do know I'm taller than you right," said boy muttered while taking a seat across from them. The farm boy leveled as small glare at the smirking girl who just waved off his annoyance with a simple wave.

"Also doesn't Sleeping Beauty wake up from a kiss," Ruby asked. Getting a small nervous cough from Oscar, who decided to move to the back of the bus, and a flat look from Neo.

'Please don't joke about that,' Neo signed.

"But I wasn't-eep!" Ruby yelled out as the bus made a sudden stop. Causing her lurch forward.

"Ok ya brats," shouted the old, balding, and squinty-eyed bus driver. "We're all here! Now get moving so I can end my shift!"

"As pleasant as ever, just like the rest of the workers in this school," Oscar muttered as he grabbed his school bag and made his way out with the rest of the students. Neo and Ruby doing the same as they made small talk along the way.

'So did you enjoy your beauty sleep?' Neo asked with a wink. 'Not like you need it.'

Laughing at her friend's 'joke', Ruby just shrugged as they walked out of the bus and walked passed a sign with the words "Welcome to Signal academy". "It was fine, just a little strange with these two guys."

That seems to be the wrong thing to say as Neo let out a gasp before grabbing Ruby by the shoulders with a pout. She then started to sign.

'How could you have one of those dreams?' she signed with a huff. 'And with TWO guys!?'

"I-IT WASN'T ONE OF THOSE KINDS OF DREAMS!" Ruby shouted with a blush. "It was just a weird dream where I was in a counseling room."

'Counseling? Like a therapist?'

"Actually, kinda like a… not a hospital, but… what are they called?"

"An asylum?" came Oscar's voice from behind them, having caught up to them.

"Yeah, that's it! Thanks, Oscar."

"No problem… What are you talking about? I just came in now." the farm boy asked.

'Just Ruby almost giving me a heart attack when she mentions about dreams with two guys,' Neo signed. Getting a slap on the shoulder from a blushing Ruby.

"W-What?! I didn't know you were into that kind of-" Oscar began, blushing furiously.

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! UGH!" she groaned. "It was some weird dream where there were these two guys in an asylum with me! One was a creepy old guy with a long nose that did fortune-telling, and the other some kind of doctor guy! That's all!"

'... did you think the second one was cute?' Neo asked with a raised brow.

"No! I mean, he was nice and kinda handsome I guess, but I wasn't thinking about him like that. He was talking about my 'rehabilitation' or something. If he was real I'm sure his patients would really like him… Uh, why do you wanna know anyway, Neo?" she asked.

'No reason,' huffed out Neo as she decided to walk faster leaving the other two behind.

"What was that about?" Ruby thought aloud.

"Really? Even I can see it," Oscar muttered, low enough that Ruby couldn't hear her.

"Oh well," Ruby said with a shrug before she grabbed Oscar by the hand and dragged him forward. "Let's go before we miss homeroom."

"Yeah," Oscar said sarcastically with an eye roll. "Heaven forbid we make the teachers like us even less than they already do."

"Don't be like that," Ruby huffed out with her cheeks puffed out. "Just because we might get in a little trouble with the teachers doesn't mean we should stop doing our best!"

"A little?" Oscar asked with a flat look. "Last time I checked we've all been in detention for one thing or another."

The young farmhand lifted one hand as he started listing off a few things.

"You're STILL in trouble for making a GUN in shop class," Oscar said with an annoyed look. The amount of chaos that day was still talked about to this day.

"I wanted to see if I could," Ruby muttered with a blush. "Besides it was just a replica of one! No inner parts or nothing!"

Rolling his eyes the farm boy continued. "I still need to apologize for mouthing off to the teacher for making a remark about my accent,"

"You can barely tell you have one," Ruby said with a smile before quickly saying. "Not that I didn't like the way you sounded before!"

Smiling in gratitude from Ruby's kind words. Oscar continued. "And then there's Neo…"

"You're not going to say what Neo did?" Ruby asked.

"What HASN'T she done?" Oscar muttered out. "Honestly, she's only getting detention because they can't pin the other crap she's done."

"She's not that bad," Ruby defended her best friend. "She just has… anger issues."

"Ruby it's only an Issue when someone makes her mad," Oscar muttered. "And this school is filled to the brim with people that set her off."

"Come on Oscar!" Ruby sighed out. "She wouldn't hurt a fly."

"You're right. Because a fly is an innocent creature that never knowingly did anything to anybody," Oscar said with a bit of sass. "But everything else? She'll maim if they give her a reason."

Ruby just stared at him for a moment. "... Pfft! You're such a kidder, Oscar." she laughed and pulled him along.

"You are too pure for this world," he muttered under his breath.

"Nah," Ruby countered while sticking her tongue out with a cute smile. "I just try to look at the brighter side."

'_It's all you can do sometimes,'_ the red-themed girl thought with a frown, something she kept hidden from Oscar as she kept looking forward as she dragged her male friend through the crowded halls making sure to avoid bumping into any of the annoyed students how gave them scathing looks for all the commotion they were making so early in the morning.

Just another day at Signal Academy. A place that once valued in good relationships between students now was a place of short-tempered students and teachers. Where most in the school would rather argue or even get into fights. While others would just avoid any conflict at all. Truly a place filled to the brim with animosity.

A place that breeds **Hatred.**

The scene ends off at a close up towards the tile floor of the school's hallway where a black liquid starts to pour out through the cracks. All the while no one noticing this strange occurrence even when people started walking over the ever-growing puddle.

Chapter end. Next chapter. Another day at school.


	2. Chapter 2 Scholastic Cesspit

"And safe!" cheered Ruby as she and Oscar walked into the class just as the first bell for today rang.

Huffing behind her Oscar took a few deep breaths as he gave his friend a tired glare.

"Next time Ruby," the farm boy wheezed out. "Don't spend such a long time trying to get a snack from the school vending machine…"

The silver-eyed girl let out an embarrassed laugh as she gave her male friend an apologetic grin.

"Sorry~!" she said as they both made their way towards the back of the classroom where Neo was waiting for them. "But I missed breakfast back home and I needed something inside of me."

The young man went bug-eyed nearly tumbling out of the desk's seat he chose to sit in when he heard what Ruby had said and how it could be misinterpreted.

"Phrasing, Ruby!"

"What?" Ruby asked with an innocent look on her face as she blinked in confusion. Wondering why Oscar was blushing up a storm or why Neo was laughing… well, at least she looked like she was laughing. Kind of hard when all you could hear was at best, rapid heavy breathing.

Calming down Neo quickly signed out. 'You need to stop acting so cute when you say stuff like that.'

"You guys are weird," Ruby muttered at her two friends. When everything calmed down Ruby saw the teacher enter and begin taking roll call. She said "the teacher", because honestly, they were so boring that Ruby could barely remember anything about them, even after all this time. In her memories, she just saw a shadow person taking their place.

"Ok class," droned the man. Even his voice was boring as he started to drone on about today's lesson and also about any events going on. Honestly Ruby at this point was just writing down what she heard with barely any interest as she preferred to think about the strange dream.

'I wonder why it felt so real,' Ruby thought as she started to doodle what she saw in her dreams. Giving up on paying attention to the lecture. Not like she needed to. Her first class was math, something she was great at even the stuff that stumped her friends.

In fact, her talent in math, science, literature, and her grades track star could've allowed her to skip ahead in school. Lord knows her teachers and principal wanted one of their students to go to the prestigious Beacon college after they heard its headmaster was interested in her.

'That or they wanted to get rid of me…,' the young girl thought as her eyes dulled. While she was praised for her grades, she was also on every teacher's bad side with the mayhem she caused. Ether it being her making weapons in metal works or making something explode in science class while testing a mixture she thought up. Heck her only bad grade was history, which is a 'C' due to how bored she would get, she never cared for history, heck she barely thought of the future unless it involved her friends.

Though her downtrodden thoughts were interrupted when Neo nudged her to get her to pay attention, though Neo smiled and gave a Ruby complement through sign language. More likely about her drawing of the Velvet Room and Igor, which looked pretty well done. Oscar even gave her a thumbs up after he took a quick look at her drawing.

Smiling at her friends Ruby went back to drawing while paying some attention to the lecture.

'Besides,' Ruby thought. 'Why would I leave my friends behind just to be surrounded by people I barely know?'

With that thought, the young teen started to get into the daily routine of going through each class in the morning. Doing her work and ignoring everyone that wasn't her friend. Doing that help time fly and soon lunchtime for her class came around.

"Finally," Oscar sighed out as he and the rest of the merry band of misfits got in line for lunch. "I thought my brain was going to leave my head to go on vacation, that was so boring."

'Why are you complaining?' Neo sighed, annoyed. 'At least you didn't keep getting called by the teachers to answer questions."

The ice cream themed girl bared her teeth in anger as her fist clenched in barely contained rage. 'Those morons keep forgetting I'M FUCKING MUTE.'

"It's ok Neo," Ruby said soothingly as she rubbed Neo back to help calm down the other girl.

"At least the teacher thinks you're smart enough to answer the questions," the farm boy muttered while grabbing a tray and slowly sliding it across the countertop "The teachers still think I'm just some hick who don't know jack about some schoolin'!"

"You're going southern again," Ruby pointed out, causing the farmhand to let out a few curses under his breath as hurried forward to grab some lunch. All the while ignoring the snide remarks from the other students that heard his little outburst. Though they all stopped and turned away when they saw Neo give them a glare.

'Jerks,' the girl signed as she glared at the retreating students with her two different colored eyes. 'They act like having an accent is something to laugh at.'

"They're just jerks," Ruby said as she grabbed some of the lunch from the counter. Grimacing at the bland looking food. Why did cafeteria food have to suck so much?

Grabbing the last of the school slop, Oscar was about to make his way towards a table but was soon stopped when a foot was stuck out in front of the unaware farm boy. Causing the boy to fall over and land on his tray of food.

"Whoops! Need to watch where you step, country boy!" came a condescending voice, one the whole school recognized.

Looking upwards the country boy growled out through clenched teeth.

"Cardin."

Cardin Winchester, the school bully of Signal Academy. He made it his mission to make everyone who didn't lick his boots miserable. He acted like the school was his own kingdom and he, the prince of the kingdom. Even though he was more like an ogre covered in fake gold with how nasty his personality was. It didn't help that he was still probably mad at the fact he was held back from going to college with the rest of his class last year.

If he didn't spend so much of last year in suspension he might've passed. Honestly, if it wasn't for his rich dad he would have been kicked out a long time ago.

"Then again, I guess your inbred cross-eyes can only see so far, huh?" Cardin smirked, his posse laughing at his comment.

The rest of the students in the lunchroom ether laughed along with Cardin or just turned away. Not willing to laugh at the cruel display but not wanting to earn Cardin's wrath by calling him out.

'Cowards,' Ruby thought as she and Neo helped Oscar up, the second girl was also glaring daggers at the laughing teen. "Don't you have anything better to do Cardin?"

"Oh? Like what? Maybe… roughing you up a bit instead?" Cardin taunted.

Ruby felt her heart begin to grind, and her breath quicken, panic setting in. 'No. Not now,' she thought, trying to keep herself calm. Noticing this Neo's eyes grew even colder and she subtly moved behind Ruby. She shifted her hand in front of her, showing the plastic spork she had grabbed earlier. She snapped it with her thumb, making sure Cardin noticed as she changed her grip on the newly created shiv.

Cardin's grin seemed to falter for a moment before he just scoffed. "Whatever, I'm too hungry to deal with you losers anyway," he said before walking off to get his own food, his posse following. The other students followed suit now that they knew the fun was over, leaving the three friends to tend to their own. Neo meanwhile rested her arm on Ruby's shoulder, giving her support as her breathing calmed and her heart rate went down. "Thanks, Neo," she managed to whimper out.

"What an A-hole," Oscar muttered as he took a few cheap cafeteria napkins from Ruby and tried to clean himself off. "Man, this is the second time this week he's ruined a shirt of mine!"

'Don't you worry, Oscar. I'll make sure to buy you something pretty while it's in the wash.' Neo signed with a smirk.

"Oh ha ha ha!" Oscar mocked laughed in good nature. "At least I was smart enough to have a spare shirt and pants in my gym locker for this kind of crap."

It was sad how true that statement was. Cardin made it his mission to make everyone miserable and some students like Oscar had to bring some extra clothes in case of stuff like what happened just now. None of the faculty were brave enough to call him out on his endless bullying, let alone the students who he tormented.

"It's always good to be prepared Oscar," said a chipper voice from behind them. Turning around the group was greeted by a welcoming sight.

"Penny!" Ruby cheered as she rushed to her other friend.

Said girl had orange-colored hair held up by a dark green bow, she was wearing a white sundress with sleeves down to her wrists and the skirt down to her knees, with neon green trimmings at the edges. Around her hips was a back sash with a neon green ribbon tied at the front, and under the dress was a black form-fitting shirt with a neon green choker on her neck. Black stockings covered her legs, running up past her skirt, and on her feet were white shoes with black straps with neon green stripes. Hiding her hands were black gloves with a neon green insignia that looked like a computer's power symbol.

"It's good to see you too Ruby," one Penny Polendina said with a smile as she hugged her silver-eyed friend.

'Didn't think you would be in school today,' Neo signed with a smile. 'With you not showing up in class this morning and the others before lunch.'

"Oh well," Penny trailed off as she gently traced her finger over the palm of her gloved hand. A nervous habit she always had. "I just needed to do some early morning check-ups. There were some snags during the range of motion exercises."

"I hope it's not serious," Oscar said as he glanced at the orange-haired girl's gloved hands before looking away as not to make her feel uncomfortable. She didn't like too much focus on them.

"It was nothing serious," Penny said with a sweet smile. "It's sweet that you are worried though."

"N-No problem," Oscar said, turning to hide his blush. This action caused the green-eyed girl to blink in confusion at her friend's behavior.

Giggling at the interaction Ruby whispered to Neo. "Aww, it's still adorable to see them talk."

Letting out a few silent chuckles Neo signed. 'It's funny how she hasn't found out that he has a crush on her.'

"Honestly, I can't believe she can't see the obvious signs," Ruby laughed before noticing the blank stare that Neo was giving her. "What?"

'... Nothing sweety,' Neo signed with a flat look before walking towards the rest of their friends. Leaving a confused Ruby alone.

"Neo?" Ruby called out in confusion. "Neo? why did you just give such a pitying look just know? Neo~ why are you ignoring me like some lost cause?!"

As the silver-eyed girl whined out as she chased after her silent friend, some less than pleasant stuff was going on in another part of the school.

-(school hallway.)-

"Little freaking mute. Who the hell does she think she is?" Cardin mumbled, seething. "One of these days, she'll get hers."

"Didn't you try to teach her a lesson before?" one of his lackeys commented. "And you almost got a slit throat from that crazy bitch?"

"Not like the teachers did anything about it," another lackey scoffed. Both of these comments earned the two a swift punch to the jaw, the force behind the blows knocking the two flat.

"Shut it!" Cardin hissed out in anger as he glared at the two teens. Said teens rubbed their now bruised jaws in anger as they glared at Cardin. The bigger teen wasn't intimidated at all though as he a step towards them. "What's with the looks? Want to do something about it?"

This caused the two to quit glaring and get up without a word. Good, they knew their place.

But not Neo, that crazy bitch was a problem and even more of a sore spot was Ruby Rose, a constant reminder of her older sister. The blonde bimbo was one of the only people who ever laid him out in a straight fight, and he still never lived it down. Even worse was that he knew Ruby had been recommended to skip straight to college, but she still stuck around. He knew it was because she and her sister still wanted to screw with him, constantly reminding him that there was someone out there that could beat him to a pulp whenever she wanted.

'The little bitch,' Cardin said in anger. The very thought of that worthless little wallflower mocking him made his blood boil. It was the very reason he wanted to beat her down when she stood up to him earlier.

Cardin HATED the fact he had to walk away from that fight. But he knew if he kept it up, that pink and brown colored bitch would shank him with the sharp end of the broken spork. And while Cardin might like to push his luck but he wasn't going to risk getting killed by some mute bitch.

'Doesn't matter,' he thought as he tightens his fist, his lackeys keeping a good distance away, as to not be in reach of his fist if he decides to start swinging.

"There's always next time," Cardin said darkly as stormed off in anger. Not feeling like going to class. His group shuffling behind him not wanting to get the Ogre of Signal Academy angry at any of them.

As the group stomped through the halls, no one noticed the black ooze seeping out of the tiles wherever Cardin stepped.

And with each step, the black ooze like water would come out faster until small puddles of it would be seen all over the halls… if it could be seen that is.

Danger was looming over this school and a certain Silver eyed girl will soon take notice as her world would be turned upside down.

The black ocean is being called…

When Hate boils over the world will soon drown…

The wild card is needed yet again, to take down the pillars that bring the sea of hatred forth.

If not, then the world will be swallowed up…

Hurry now little rose…

You are needed.


	3. Chapter 3 Daily life Bitter memories

"Ugh… another school day over with…" Ruby sighed. The red-themed girl slid into her seat on the bus, all the day's stress catching up to her.

'You look beat Ruby,' Neo signed out as she sat next to the younger teen. 'I know Cardin can get on everyone's nerves but you can't let him ruin your day completely.'

"I know~!" Ruby whined with a pout. "But everyone was staring at us like we had the plague!"

"Ruby, be honest, that's nothing new," Oscar sighed. "Besides, you're acting more stressed out then I am, and I'm the one Cardin messed with."

"All for one and one for all! Going after one of us is going after all of us!" Ruby declared as she stood up.

"Quiet back there!" the bus driver shouted.

"Eeep!" Ruby squeaked out as she sat back down. Her face flushed in embarrassment as she heard a few students on the bus laugh at her. Though they were quickly silenced from the glare they got from Neo.

Letting out a laugh Penny reached across from where she and Oscar were sitting and Ruffled Ruby's hair to help calm Ruby down. This only caused Ruby to blush harder from the affection she was getting and for Neo to puff her cheeks in annoyance.

Shaking his head at his friend's outburst, Oscar gave Ruby a small smile. "Ruby, thanks but you sticking up for me is just going to have Cardin target you out."

The farm boy let out another sigh. "Wish we could actually _do _something about him, though. As long as his dad is rolling in the big bucks, he'll keep getting away with this crap."

"It is okay, Oscar. So long as we stick together, we should be just fine!" Penny smiled.

Oscar blushed a bit and looked away. "Y-Yeah. Good point Penny. Thanks."

Ruby just stared blankly at the scene as she turned towards her best friend.

"But wasn't that what I just said," the silver-eyed girl muttered. Getting a silent chuckle from Neo.

'Don't take it too hard Ruby,' Neo signed out. 'Oscar is only agreeing with her because he's thinking with a different organ.'

Ruby gave her friend a puzzled look before a look of realization appeared.

"Oh~! You mean he's thinking with his heart," Ruby said with a nod of pride at figuring out what Neo meant. It made sense Oscar would listen to his crush.

'Yeah…, his heart,' Neo signed out with a deadpan look. God Ruby could be dense even if it made her cuter in Neo's eyes. 'That's totally what I meant.' Neo really wished she could convey sarcasm with sign language.

Penny smiled as they all continued to talk, enjoying their company, only to recognize the surroundings, and a familiar woman by the road looking at her watch. Her face fell as the bus slowly came to a noisy stop. "Alright, everyone who's getting get out!"

"Well it looks like my stop is here," Penny said as she got up to leave. "Goodbye friends! I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!" she forced herself to say cheerfully as she walked off the bus. Waiting for her was an older woman with a tanned complexion, navy blue hair in a bob cut tucked behind one ear, with sky blue eyes. She wore a navy blue blazer over a white blouse, a navy blue pencil skirt, and black heels. Her only out of place features were a golden circle in the middle of her forehead with four points and a navy blue beret. To those who paid close attention, there was a white symbol on the front of her beret, a staff surrounded by a stylized ring.

Getting off the bus Penny turned around to wave her friends goodbye but was stopped as the young woman next to her politely tapped her shoulder to show her what time it was on her watch. Most likely letting Penny know that they were running late.

The group watched their young friend get into a car with the young women as the bus started to drive off to continue its route.

"I hate having to see Penny go," Ruby whined as she sank into her seat.

'We'll see her at school again, Ruby,' Neo signed before patting her on the head.

"But it sucks that her bus stop is so close to school," Ruby said with a huff.

"It's better than when she was picked up by Ciel at school," Oscar muttered. Frowning at the thought of the woman they saw, and all the times said woman would butt into their hang out time to pull Penny away.

"I guess," the red-themed teen muttered. They all went back to talking for a bit before the next stop came up, a bus stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

"Well my stop," Oscar sighed out. Grabbing his things as he got up and left the bus, all the while ignoring any comments from the other students. Said comments being silenced by Neo glaring at them.

'Why doesn't he just let his aunt pick him up?' Neo signed.

"You know Oscar," Ruby said with a sigh. "He doesn't want to feel like he's inconveniencing his aunt."

'The guy needs to stop putting others' needs before his own so much_,'_ Neo signed out.

"He just likes to help people out," Ruby defended her farmworker of a friend.

'Yeah but he shouldn't do it at the expense of himself,' Neo countered.

Ruby just nodded before leaning against the window, looking outside as the scenery passed by. Neo meanwhile got comfortable leaning up against her, smiling as she did. Ruby smiled back. '_What a good friend she is.'_

The bus soon stopped, and Neo let out a huff as her stop was here.

Getting up Neo turned towards Ruby and signed out. 'You sure you don't want to stay the night again?'

Shaking her head the silver-eyed girl gave her mute friend a smile. "Nah, I already stayed over for the last three days, I don't want to overstay my welcome."

Neo looked a bit disappointed at that, but nodded all the same. 'You could never do that,' she signed as she got up. As she got off the bus everyone subtly scooched away from her. After the bus started to move again Ruby looked out the window to see Neo waving.

Ruby smiled and waved back. '_What a great friend.'_

Ruby leaned back into her seat as the bus continued on its route. She slowly tuned out the rest of the students. Their voices fading and their appearance becoming nothing but silhouettes to the young girl's eyes as she let the world fade away as she drifted into her mind and started to daydream.

Her mind began to drift back to the strange dream she had on the bus. _Why was that dream so clear? And what were those two's name's again? Right, it was Igor and Henry… Huh, weren't both of those characters from Frankenstein? It's been a while since I read that._ She began to remember the first time she read the book, and then somberly realized that she had actually had someone read the book for the first time. _Mom…_

"_I'm sorry, miss. But… she's gone."_

Jolting awake, the young girl held back tears as her heart started to beat faster and faster. Quickly scrambling to her school back the red-themed girl quickly found something that looked like a container. Twisted the top open and pulling out a small object from it before popping it into her mouth and taking a water bottle from her bag and downing it all within a few gulps.

Letting out a breath the silver-eyed teen put away her things and sank into her seat. Letting out a tired sigh and tried to calm down…

Right before the bus stopped, jolting the young teen and made her almost yelp out in surprise from the sudden stop.

"Alright." yelled the bus driver. "Last stop. Now get off so I can call it a day!"

"Jerk," muttered Ruby as she got up and made her way out of the bus.

As Ruby got off the bus she got a good look at her "home". Still, the same plain-looking building sandwiched between two other houses. It's dull gray paint and lack of any flair made the house give off a depressed mood.

"Home sweet home," Ruby muttered as she walked up the steps of the porch of her house before stopping at the door. She sighed and was about to knock but hesitated. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. When there was no response back she sighed in relief, taking her key out of her bag before unlocking it to go inside.

The house was modest and humble, a simple couch in the living room across from a tv, a ceiling fan for light, a lamp in the corner. The kitchen was visible from the entrance and was about big enough for two people to work. On the opposite side of the room were stairs leading to the second floor, and right under them a door that led to the basement.

"Hello?" she called, hoping she wouldn't get an answer. When she didn't she relaxed a bit and headed to the kitchen for a quick snack. Soon she was humming a cheerful tune as she was about to dig into a bowl of strawberries and chocolate chip cookies when the door opened.

She froze as an unfortunately familiar face walked in.

"So Pyhrra was telling me about what happened to Jaune in gym class today and you won't believe what Vomit boy did this time," laughed a voice coming from the front door as two people walked into the house. Both were dressed in black jackets with brown edges over white shirts with red ribbons around the collars. Brown corsets were visible from under their jackets and they wore red plaid skirts and black stockings of different lengths and brown school shoes.

The first girl was a beautiful young woman with long flowing blond hair, fair skin. She was beautiful, with a well-developed body and a smile that could light up the room, her lilac eyes danced with mirth as she talked to her friend following behind her.

Said girl sported black hair that went down to the middle of her back, on top of her head was a large black bow that almost looked like cat ears, golden eyes framed by purple eyeshadow in cats-eye style.

As the two walked into the building the blond was taking off her school bag, but stopped mid action when she noticed Ruby, the smile fading from her face. The two of them just held each other's gaze for a few agonizing moments of silence.

"... Hey, Yang," Ruby said awkwardly, looking away.

"... Hey, sis," Yang said, also not willing to look at her sister.

Both of them went back to an awkward silence again before the other girl cleared her throat to come in.

"So um, hey Ruby! I'm here to help Yang with her math assignments. She needs a little help studying for math," the Blake haired girl said, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me," Yang groaned. "C'mon Blake, let's get something to eat," she said while quickly walking past Ruby to the kitchen.

"We'll, um, just be going downstairs in a moment," Blake said.

"... Kay," Ruby muttered, quickly making her way up the stairs and putting an end to the conversation, much to her sister's relief as she and Blake went to the kitchen.

"You know you two can't keep acting like this," Blake muttered as they walked into the kitchen.

"You don't think I don't know that?" Yang hissed out. "But it's really hard to just look her straight in the eye."

"Well you better do something," the bow wearing teen muttered, her eyes narrowing to near slits as she gave her blond friend a disapproving look.

"Sorry that it's hard to bring up THAT in a conversation!" Yang snapped. "What CAN I say? Hey Ruby, I want to say sorry for what I did two years ago, ON YOUR BIRTHDAY NO LESS!"

Letting out a sigh Blake shook her head at her friend's outburst.

"All the more reason to talk to her Yang," Blake muttered. This made the blond teen sigh as she looked down in shame.

"I'll try," Yang muttered as she looked up towards the ceiling. "Besides, does she really need someone like me?"

**(back with Ruby)**

Rushing to her room Ruby ran towards her bed and jumped into it. Pulling her bookbag off the teen dug through it and pulled out the same small container from earlier. Twisting it open, the red-themed teen girl tried to pour its contents into her waiting hand. Only to receive nothing but air, much to her panic.

"No!" she said in panic, as she dropped the container.

Grabbing her head the young teen started rocking back and forth as her heart beat faster and faster, the sound of it getting louder and louder. It's loud beating became nearly deafening as her head started to hurt more and more as images flashed in her mind, and voices could be heard in her head.

"_Mommy?"_

"_Where is she!?_

"_He's gone because of you!"_

"_Miss… I'm sorry."_

"_She's gone."_

Gasping out as tears ran down her face the silver-eyed girl quickly scrambled to the edge of her bed. Reaching down and under her bed, she quickly pulled out a shoebox.

She threw the top off the box and rummaged through it before finding what she was looking for, two similar items that she quickly pulled out and held to her chest. She rocked back and forth, humming a tune to herself as her heart rate slowly began the fall to normal. After what felt like hours she held the objects up to look at them, tears in her eyes.

"I miss you both, so much," Ruby whispered as she looked at the two objects in her hands.

Two police badges that shone in the light of the setting sun that broke through her window, names inscribed into them.

VALE POLICE FORCE. Summer Rose.

VALE POLICE FORCE. Taiyang Xiao Long

"Mom..., Dad."


End file.
